Zanzibar demands R800 travel insurance fee – no matter how good your insurance already is

A general view of people kite surfing in Paje, Zanzibar, on 12 January 2022. (Sumy Sadurni / AFP)

Zanzibar has a new $44 mandatory insurance requirement for foreign visitors.It will be required from 1 October.Other travel insurance doesn’t count.

From 1 October, all foreign visitors to Zanzibar will be required to pay the equivalent of about R800 for new, mandatory insurance, no matter how good their travel insurance is.

It also doesn’t matter if you’re just popping by for the weekend; you’ll have to pay the full $44 price for a 92-day stretch of cover to the national insurer, Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, to get a QR code to show on arrival.

The price applies to all foreign non-resident visitors, including children.

According to the Tanzanian government, the insurance that is bought will be comprehensive cover, “including repatriation, evacuation, and related contingencies” – exactly the kind of thing covered by the travel insurance travellers are often required to buy in their home countries.

Travel insurance is often bundled with financial services products, such as credit cards, or included in corporate travel packages. Regular travellers often have multi-trip policies in place. For those not covered in this way, various local insurers this week quoted prices well below R300 for comprehensive cover for a week-long trip to Zanzibar.

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The mandatory insurance is “to ensure the safety and well-being of all foreigners and mitigate any possible risk pertaining to their travel into the island”.

However, the third-largest political party in Tanzania, the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT) Wazalendo said the new insurance cover was imposed without engagement and could harm tourism.

The semi-autonomous Zanzibar is Tanzania’s biggest tourism draw card. 

Government figures show that last year, the top five nationalities that visited the island were the United States of America (84 541 visitors), France (72 009), Germany (57 798), the United Kingdom (51 505), and Italy (51 056).

Tourism accounts for more than 27% of Zanzibar’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 80% of foreign exchange earnings.

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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